Madonna News Archives for November 2012

Madonna’s iconic conical-bra corset designed by Jean Paul Gaultier has sold for approximately $52,000 at a Christie’s sale in South Kensington, London.

Although the singer has recently been making headlines in places like Russia for her outspoken statements, it was her British fans who shelled out to own some of the singer’s vintage concert memorabilia.

The costume, worn by the singer on her 1990 Blonde Ambition tour. The corset features pale pink-and-green sequins and green fringe along the bottom.

While the costume was only estimated to bring in about $24,000, the item sparked a bidding war more, and resulted in a price more than double what was expected.

The 54-year-old singer wore the scandalous outfit for a mere three songs onstage, including her hit “Hanky Panky.” Check out the bedazzled corset below.

A few of Madonna’s other costumes were sold at the auction as well, including a black Lycra two-piece she wore while performing “Vogue,” which went for $26,000.

Madonna claims the No. 1 ranking on the weekly tally of Hot Tours for the fifth time since the launch of her blockbuster MDNA Tour that has been playing concert venues in Europe and North America since the end of May. Ticket revenue reported during the past week surpasses the $60 million mark from performances that occurred during October and November in 18 U.S. cities. With two-show runs at venues in Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston, St. Paul and New York City, the overall attendance count from six weeks of concerts totals 336,386.
With $233 million already logged from 74 shows and a string of stadium performances scheduled in South American cities through December 22, the MDNA Tour is on track to potentially rank among the 10 top-grossing tours of all time. Madonna¹s top-grossing tour so far is Sticky & Sweet Tour (2008-2009) that generated more than $407 million in ticket sales and ranks fourth all-time on the Boxscore tally.
Barclays Center, the new 19,000-seat arena in Brooklyn, New York has reported concert gross and attendance counts from its first two months of operation including a mammoth $9.3 million gross from Barbra Streisand¹s Back to Brooklyn Tour that played to sellout crowds on October 11 and 13. The legendary entertainer and Brooklyn-native earns this week¹s No. 2 Hot Tours ranking with revenue totals reported from the two-show stint in her hometown.
Also ranking among this week¹s top 10 tours at No. 3 is Jay-Z, another Brooklyn-born superstar, who played the inaugural concert in the new facility on September 28. He performed a total of eight sold out shows in Barclays Center through October 6, grossing $7.3 million from 121,058 sold tickets. Additional artists to play the new venue include gospel music¹s Kirk Franklin, Marvin Sapp, Donnie McClurkin and Israel Houghton with the King¹s Men Tour on October 14, veteran rock band Rush with a concert on October 22, a two-night dance music event dubbed Sensation on October 26-27 and a sold out show on November 12 with teen superstar Justin Bieber.read more →

A Russian court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit that sought millions of dollars in damages from Madonna for allegedly traumatizing minors by speaking up for gay rights during a concert in St. Petersburg.

The ruling came after a one-day hearing that bordered on the farcical. During it, plaintiffs claimed that Madonna’s so-called “propaganda of perversion” would negatively affect Russia’s birthrate and erode the nation’s defense capability by depriving the country of future soldiers. At one point, the judge threatened to expel journalists from the courtroom if they laughed too much.

In the end, the Moskovsky district court in St. Petersburg threw out the Trade Union of Russian Citizens’ lawsuit and the 333 million rubles ($10.7 million) it sought from the singer for allegedly exposing youths to “homosexual propaganda.”

Madonna did not attend the trial, and her publicist Liz Rosenberg said Thursday the star wouldn’t comment about it.

Anti-gay sentiment is strong in Russia, particularly in St. Petersburg, where local legislators passed a law in February that made it illegal to promote homosexuality to minors. Six months later, Madonna criticized the law on Facebook, then stood up for gay rights during a concert in St. Petersburg that drew fans as young as 12.

“Who will children grow up to be if they hear about the equal rights of the lesbian lobby and manly love with traditional sexual relations?” one of the plaintiffs, Darya Dedova, testified Thursday. “The death rate prevails over the birth rate in the West; young guys are becoming gender neutral.”

The plaintiffs submitted evidence about gay culture drawn from Wikipedia pages, claiming that a real encyclopedia could not have articles about homosexuality.

“We aren’t against homosexual people, but we are against the propaganda of perversion among minors,” Dedova told the court. “We want to defend the values of a traditional family, which are currently in crisis in this country. Madonna violated our laws and she should be punished.”

Madonna, who performed in Moscow and St. Petersburg in August as part of her world tour, also angered Russian officials by supporting jailed members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot. The American said during her Moscow concert that she would “pray for them,” then turned around so the audience could see the words “Pussy Riot” written on her back. The singer also donned a ski mask similar to those worn by Pussy Riot.

Despite international outrage, three of that band’s members were sentenced to two years in jail on hooliganism charges for performing a “punk prayer” at Moscow’s main cathedral, during which they pleaded with the Virgin Mary to deliver Russia from President Vladimir Putin. One of the Pussy Riot members was later released from jail on appeal, but the other two were sent to prison camps to serve their sentences.

Maybe Madonna’s stalker had something to do with the move? Although Robert Linhart faces up to a year in jail after resisting arrest outside Madonna’s New York City property in 2010, the singer has decided to put her Central Park West duplex (where the incident took place) up for sale at $23.5 million.

According to The Daily Mail, the duplex is 6,000 square feet and includes eight bathrooms, five wood-burning fireplaces, a library, a marble master bedroom, a claw-foot tub and balconies overlooking Central Park. (Story continues after the gallery.)

The duplex is near West 64th Street, and is located on the fifth and sixth floors of the Harperley Hall building. It’s reportedly listed by Arabella Buckworth of Brown Harris Stevens and Adam Modlin of The Modlin Group real estate site.

Don’t worry, Madge can still stay in NYC easily – she also owns a triple-wide townhouse on the Upper East Side, which she bought in 2009 for $32.5 million.

It seems like Madonna is trying to downsize some of her real estate ventures this year. Just this past March, she put her Beverly Hills mansion up for sale.

The New York Post reports that Madonna is currently renting a home in the Hamptons while looking for a home there.